


Sanguine

by Ruuger



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Character Study, Episode Tag, Episode: s01e18 Russet Potatoes, Gen, Season/Series 01, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 05:18:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruuger/pseuds/Ruuger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A day in the life of Patrick Jane.  A missing scene/episode tag for "Russet Potatoes".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sanguine

**Author's Note:**

> Please ignore the slight geography/canon fail. Did I already mention that I wrote this really late at night on Christmas Eve? ;)

When Jane touches his chest, he can feel the fabric of his shirt chafe uncomfortably against the bruises and abrasions left by the sharp edge of the parapet. What he wants is to just drop to the ground and curl into a ball, but he takes care not to show it as he staggers across the roof to release Dr. Daniel. His knees tremble as if made of jello, and his heart is still pounding painfully hard, and for a moment he wonders if he might be having a heart attack. It's all forgotten, however, when he catches sight of Rigsby and Lindsey again, with Rigsby standing a bit off the side, looking confused as Lisbon reads Lindsey her rights. When he looks at them, he feels like crowing in victory, but restrains himself and focuses on uncuffing the doctor.

Only the ever-so-observant Lisbon notices something, giving him a curious look, and he flashes her a smile - the kind that he knows makes him look either mysterious or manic, but right now he doesn't really care what she thinks. Because this is the biggest high of all, what he has done to Lindsey - breaking the suggestion and outwitting a master manipulator in her own game.

Lisbon shakes her head and gestures Rigsby to escort Lindsey inside as the officers of local PD storm the roof and take over. She watches them help Doctor Daniel away, and then takes Jane by the crook of his arm.

"A shark?" she asks, her lips quirking into a sardonic smile. "C'mon, Spielberg. Let's get you home."

When they reach the stairs, she casts him a quick glance before she lets go of his arm. There is a hint of concern in her eyes, and Jane knows that it's because she's already lost too many men in her life. It touches him to know that she includes him in that group of people she feels obligated to protect.

There is an ambulance waiting in front of the building, with Dr. Daniel already sitting in the back, being tended by the paramedics. Lisbon insists that Jane be checked out too, and still giddy from the rush of adrenalin, he doesn't even bother to protest.

The paramedic is a tawny-haired woman in her mid-thirties, gaunt-faced and slightly too skinny for her uniform. She is recently divorced, Jane can tell, probably fighting for the custody of her child. When she reaches for the gauze, Jane cranes his head at the pretense of stretching his neck until he spots the photo taped to the sun visor. Ah. Two children.

"What's so funny?"

He must have been smiling, because the paramedic has stopped applying the gauze on his chest and just looks at him, frowning, probably thinking that he has hit his head as well.

Jane shakes his head. "Nothing. Just remembered a joke I heard earlier."

When she returns to her work, he wonders if he should tell her that she should stop drinking on the job if she wants to see her children again. It's a thrill of its own, the feeling he gets from seeing the looks on their faces as he unpeels their lives, layer by layer. Even now as he looks at her, he can feel it at the pit of his stomach - the power. Just one word, and he could change her life, for better or for worse. That's the biggest turn-on there is.

He's still thinking about it when Lisbon drops him off at his house. Once inside, he sets his keys on the side table in the foyer and then heads for the living room, pausing to flick on the television when he passes it. On the screen Doctor Phil is speaking to a small woman with a bad perm and too much make-up, the camera cutting from the audience to her face just as she burst into tears.

"What you need to do is to just accept him for what he is! Because the reason why you're depressed is that you're setting too high standards for your husband!"

Oh no she isn't, Jane corrects the good doctor in his mind. She's sorry because she's cheating on him with the family lawyer.

The bedroom door muffles the voices on the television as it closes, but doesn't silence them completely. Through the floor he can still hear the comforting murmur of Doctor Phil and his audience, ebbing and flowing like the waves of the ocean. He stretches his back, the cuts on his chest pinching as they rub against the gauze, and then toes off his shoes and removes his jacket and vest. Downstairs the audience erupts in applauds, and Jane falls down on the mattress without bothering with the rest of his clothes and stares at the smiling face on the wall until he feels nothing at all.


End file.
